The present invention relates generally to a support structure for a transportation passage way, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to a support structure, such as a pier, for a transportation passageway, such as a road or a bridge, that is supported by a column.
The major forms of transportation in the United States occurs either in vehicles on roads or in trains on railways. In the case of roads, numerous highways and interstates form an integral part of the routine of most Americans and their travels on a daily basis. With these extensive roadways that span throughout the United States, construction items such as bridges, overpasses, on-ramps, exit-ramps and the like are required for the roads to traverse the landscape and complete the roads connecting the various destinations of travelers.
Of course, these roads, bridges, overpasses and associated structures must be built and then maintained in order to provide a safe passageway for the traveling public. Under conventional methods, the highway interstate construction can be very disruptive to the traveling public. This is typically due to the sequential construction methods of the various bridges and overpasses, and similar structures. Typically, the order of construction includes the foundations first, columns second, piers third, then the beams and/or decks next. The road, or alternate structure such as train tracks, that will ultimately be traveled is then finally positioned.
The typical construction has the foundations, columns, and caps made of concrete. This requires a framework to support and to contain the concrete as it solidifies once it is poured. This method results in long construction times since the various frameworks must be first built. Then the actual structure such as the column and/or cap must be poured into place and allowed to set. Next the framework must be removed to facilitate traffic flow, especially around the columns.
Recent construction methods, including those proposed by the Federal Highway Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation have focused on pre-fabricated bridge elements. These are typically comprised of concrete and are manufactured either at the building site or off-site under controlled conditions. The purpose of the pre-caste nature is to reduce the framework required during building of the bridge and/or overpass in order to increase the safety of the workers during the construction, reduce the traffic disruption to nearby roadways and lessen the overall footprint during construction and the impact on insular items of that footprint such as power lines, the buildings, etc.
Most of the pre-fabrication aspects of these bridges and overpasses have previously focused on providing segments of the bridge or overpass that are designed to exact specifications needed for the particular bridge and/or overpass. Current pre-fabricated components do not lend themselves to flexible designs. These current designs lack the capability fore any substantive adjustment post manufacturing, including at the construction sight. As such, the current pre-fabricated components require extensive planning during the early stages of the projects. Additionally, exact measurements for these sections must be predetermined and those sections must be manufactured to those certain measurements and specifications in order for the roadway to be properly built. This has two major drawbacks.
First, little to no adjustment can be made at the construction site if those measurements and specifications are wrong. As such, sections of those piers are sometimes wasted because they did not fall into the proper dimensions for the roadway being built. Additionally, given the precise nature of the construction of those piers, installation can be very tedious in order to properly position those prior art piers.
The second drawback to this sort of construction is the fact that each pier, bridge section, or overpass section must be individually constructed per the specifications for that particular section of transportation passageway. As such, little if any mass production of the piers for the transportation passageway can be made in advance. This effectively substantially eliminates mass production of the piers which slows the overall construction time down for the transportation passageway project.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a prefabricated support structure used to support a transport passageway that can be quickly manufactured and allows for adjustment to match the required transportation passageway requirements at the construction site.